The Tale of the Midnight Madness

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Midnight Society

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Air Date: Saturday, June 26, 1993

Intro: As the Midnight Society gathers, Kiki (Jodie Resther) and David (Nathaniel Moreau) run in, excited about having passes for that night's "Fright Night" at their local theatre, showing three monster movies in a row. Frank (Jason Alisharan) then brings up his experience there, and the reasons why he won't ever go back. I actually appreciate the way he lays it out, and it all segues into his story quite nicely. And just for everyone's information, this episode was something that genuinely creeped me out a bit back in the day, so, bonus points!

Story: An old-fashioned movie theatre called "The Rialto" is about ready to sell its last movie ticket, not being able to keep up with the times. Here, Pete (Eddie Robinson) works with his friend, Katie (Melanie Wiesenthal), and Pete does his best to save the theatre from closing. When their luck runs out, Dr. Vink (Aron Tager) returns to Frank's storytelling, offering to save the theatre in exchange for allowing him to show his movies once a week. Ultimately, it works, but the catch is, these movies have the ability to take on a life of their own.

Review: This is definitely one of my all-time favourite episodes of the series. Its creepiness not withstanding, it also introduced me to the likes of the Nosferatu-style vampire (Christopher Heyerdahl), takes place at a movie theatre, features a character who likes movies as much as I do, and it's all topped off with the return of Dr. Vink, who was always a bit of a favourite of mine. But this is well-separated from 'Phantom Cab.' It's much better, and has a fun twist ending. As it usually goes with this show, things get a bit nonsensical, but this will forever be a favourite episode of mine.

Closing/Moral: Frank's story is successful enough for David and Kiki to pass on their Fright Night tickets to Frank. Gary (Ross Hull) says he thought he wasn't going, but Frank, having acquired two free tickets shrugs it off reminding us that at the end of the day, it's "just a movie," which I also take as the overall moral here; don't let it get the best of you.

5/5

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